Birthday Love

Yesterday (Friday) was Eric's birthday. But we kind of celebrated it over the course of a few days. Wednesday we had dinner out with his parents, sister, and his sister's boyfriend. Cate enjoyed getting to see Grandma, Poppy, and Aunt Kristin. Grandma's birthday is today (happy birthday)!

Thursday we had part of our small group over (two families couldn't make it-- bummer). The kids all played outside and then we shared German Chocolate cake (Eric's favorite) and ice cream.
Thursday night, I wrapped Eric's presents.
What's inside? A John Coletrane vinyl (Love Supreme), the fixin's for making Irish Stout beer (he's lovin' the homebrew thing), and this (which he put together last night as soon as we got home from going out to dinner):
My husband has always been a bit of a stargazer. And a nature lover. Which is why today we went hiking. Brennan hung out in the Kelty Kids carrier that I scored secondhand from the fitness instructor where I've been taking classes. It's built for a woman's smaller frame, so it wasn't too uncomfortable to wear.
Cate brought along a bucket to collect "treasures." She picked up a lot of rocks and sticks (which we're going to paint tomorrow), but she also found a feather, some pinecones, and a few acorns.
Eric got a lot of camping gear for his birthday too. He enjoyed camping as a kid and wants to share that love with his family. The heat is supposed to die down this week, so we're hoping to head to a state park not too far away and camp one night this week. I figure we'll stay close to home the first night in case things get ugly and we need to drive home in the middle of the night. We'll see though. The blessing of Eric's not working right now while I'm still home on maternity leave is that we have the luxury this week of deciding on a whim which night will work best for us and then heading out. I'll let you know how it goes. I'm actually looking forward to it.

~Melody :-)